1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improvements in toy dolls, and more particularly pertains to new and improved talking dolls wherein the doll's speech is activated by physically touching certain parts of the doll's body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Those concerned with the development of talking dolls have long recognized the problems associated with creating a lifelike-sounding voice from small mechanisms placed in the body of the doll. This problem is compounded by the additional desire to create the illusion of responsive speech. Generally, the prior art has utilized computers and synthesized speech mechanisms responsive either to the spoken word of a human or the touch of a human. Synthesized speech has assured the appearance of responsiveness, but the quality of the voice created is not as human-like as desired. The use of a magnetically-recorded voice, although having a high degree of humanness quality, is lacking in the apparent responsiveness and interaction of the speech pattern that may be generated.
The present invention not only provides a high quality human-like character to the voice being generated, but also provides the appearance of responsiveness by the randomness of the speech pattern. The present invention goes even further by providing something that has heretofore not been available in the prior art. A doll that can speak in a normal volume and tone and at a whispered volume and tone with equal clarity and fidelity, and with the appearance of responsiveness both in the whisper speech mode and in the normal conversational speech mode.